Queen For Blog: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

'Bombshell From Brooklyn'

Paco went multicultural for Rule 5 Sunday with this rare Xavier Cugat treasure:

Bob Belvedere has photos of Lina Romay, the lovely singer in Cugat's band.

Cynthia Yockey offers an excellent reminder

by Smitty

She knew one of the victims of the Mumbai Massacre, and has a post at News Real Sunday which is worth your time.

Just a couple of weeks later, despite the overwhelming pain from her loss, Alan's wife, Kia, was calling for forgiveness. Earlier this month, the Synchronicity Foundation announced that Kia is co-founding the One Life Alliance to teach people that life is sacred and about the power of forgiveness to create world peace. The organization was officially inaugurated on Thanksgiving Day.

Forgiveness is giving up the resentment you feel toward someone who has hurt or wronged you, which frees you from being emotionally tied to them and stops them from being able to feed on your pain. It does not mean you condone the wrong. You just let go of the resentment it caused.

So forgiveness is, indeed, a great power — IF you can get people to do it.

Forgiveness is a vital function of the healthy individual soul. It's also easy to forget this point, in the middle of being a fire-breathing military type of fellow. I'm thankful to Cynthia for this crucial reminder.

Sorry about the metal, Stacy

by Smitty

As a peace offering to Stacy for the last post...

...I thought it might be casual to post Leslie Feist

...who has the most haunting voice I've heard in the last, oh, hour.

Mötley CR:Ü: Shout at the Data

by Smitty

What better answer to the Warmaquiddick hair ball than a hair band?
The artistic dreck that is Mötley Crüe is the perfect contrast to the scientific dreck that is the Climate Research Unit, and I expect this will be the first of many parodies.

Shout shout shout
Shout shout shout
Shout at the data!

ManBearPig screaming lonely in the night
Carbon footprint on the stay-yay-yage
Warming fear in your eye
Being taxed by his lies
He's the Cap on your back--he's rage
Occam's razor on your life
Oh, lonely are our wives
My head's spinnin' round and round
But when the seasons are bent
He stands, incontinent
We're strong and laugh and

[Chorus]
Shout shout shout
Shout at the data
Shout shout shout

They 'steal' the mail from the serv
Calls for blood at the nerve
And then have you crying at coh-oh-ode
Steals integrity from youth
With his Inconvenient Truth
The polar bear guilt mother lode
He'll be the Florida in the math
And maybe Michael Moore's wrath
Might run scared for the door
It's like M. C. Escher
Crossed with Fran Drescher
Were strong and laugh and

[Chorus]

[Repeat V1]

[Chorus]

Update: Pecunious Predator 'lanch

Update II: Rightofcourse goes Vaudeville.

Update III: Robert Gibbs. "No real scientific basis for the dispute of this." Oh, Robert, your lobotomy scar is showing.

Huckabee answers the wrong question

On his radio show:

"If I could have known nine years ago, looked into the future, would I have acted favorably upon the parole board's recommendation? Of course not . . ."

Isn't foresight one of those qualities that is essential to statesmanship? Haven't both presidents Clinton and Bush been excoriated for failing to anticipate and prevent the 9/11 attacks?

There was no shortage of evidence that Maurice Clemmons was a dangerous criminal. An Arkansas jury had convicted him and an Arkansas judge had sentenced him to 35 years in prison. And you set him free after barely more than 10. Nor was this an isolated act:

In fact, an Arkansas Leader study indicated that Huckabee helped free more prisoners from 1996 through 2004 than were freed in the six neighboring states -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas -- combined.

You failed in your duty to protect the lives of your fellow citizens. Enjoy your broadcasting career. Your credibility as a political leader died Sunday morning in that Lakewood coffee shop.

Video via Hot Air.

SEATTLE MANHUNT: Search continues for cop-killer suspect Maurice Clemmons POLICE: 'People are helping' suspect

UPDATE 12/2: CLEMMONS SHOT DEAD.

UPDATE 7:55 p.m. ET: Tacoma News-Tribune:

McDonald said investigators believe Clemmons, who was shot in the torso during the shooting, is getting help.
"It's apparent people are helping him," McDonald said. "Anyone helping him ... will be held accountable."

UPDATE 7:45 p.m. ET: According to the Tacoma News Tribune, police have found the Mazda belonging to Clemmons wife -- his ex-wife, they report -- and say it was not involved in Clemmons' escape. The News Tribune also reports that agents on the Canadian border have been told to keep an eye out for Clemmons.

Clemmons and his wife were married in 2004 by an Arkansas judge who wrote a letter in support of Clemmons' clemency appeal.

UPDATE 6:35 p.m. ET: More on the manhunt:

Washington state police are looking for the wife of the man suspected of killing four police officers near Seattle. They believe she may be headed to Arkansas, where her husband, Maurice Clemmons, had served prison time before former Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence in 2000.
Police are on the lookout for a green 1997 Mazda Millenia with Washington license plate 208-SSX, registered to Clemmons' wife, Nicole Cheryleen Smith, the Seattle Times reports.

UPDATE 6:20 p.m. ET: Michelle Malkin has a new post about the manhunt, linking an interview with one of the victims of Clemmons' 1989 crime spree:

Karen Hodge, one of Maurice Clemmon's robbery victims in Arkansas 20 years ago, said she was horrified by the Pierce County shootings.
"I'm flabbergasted," said Hodge, now 68, of Little Rock. "He should still be in prison."
Clemmons . . . was convicted in 1989 of aggravated robbery after he told Hodge he had a un, demanded that she give him her purse, and hit her in the face.
"He was a punk .... kid," recalled Hodge, who had just parked her car on a street.
"He said give me your purse, or I'm going to shoot you. I said, 'Hell no.' Boy, he knocked me half way across my car. That's about all I know about that little bastard."

Huckabee is still defending his indefensible decision to grant clemency to this vicious sociopath.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m. ET: The families of four slain Lakewood, Wash., police officers will no doubt be furious to learn how easily Clemmons fooled Mike Huckabee:

Documents released this morning by the Arkansas Parole Board show police slaying suspect Maurice Clemmons was supposed to remain in prison there until at least 2015, but won his release by claiming he'd changed while behind bars.
Clemmons' appeal for clemency was granted in May 2000 by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, who commuted Clemmons sentence and made him immediately eligible for parole.
Clemmons wrote in an appeal to Huckabee that he'd been sent to prison after an extended crime spree that started in 1989 when he was a teenager — and that he was a different person now.
At the time of the crimes — which included aggravated robbery, firearms possession and burglary — Clemmons claimed he was 16 years old and had moved from Seattle to a high-crime neighborhood in Arkansas.
"I succumbed to the peer pressure and the need I had to be accepted by other youth in my new environment and fell in with the wrong crowd and thus began a seven (7) month crime spree which led me to prison," Clemmons wrote in his application to Huckabee.
Clemmons said he came from "a very good Christian family" and "was raised much better than my actions speak (I'm still ashamed to this day for the shame my stupid involvement in these crimes brought to my family name.)," he wrote.
"Where once stood a young (16) year old misguided fool, who's (sic) own life he was unable to rule. Now stands a 27 year old man, who has learned through 'the school of hard knocks' to appreciate and respect the rights of others. And who has in the midst of the harsh reality of prison life developed the necessary skills to stand along (sic) and not follow a multitude of do evil, as I did as a 16 year old child."

At First Things, Joe Carter writes about the limits of "compassion," and Doug Bandow at the American Spectator notes a 2007 report by ABC's Jake Tapper:

In fact, an Arkansas Leader study indicated that Huckabee helped free more prisoners from 1996 through 2004 than were freed in the six neighboring states -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas -- combined.

Kill Truck comments:

We just want Huck to accept his responsibility in this. We're waiting.

UPDATE 1:25 p.m.: In a press conference, Lakewood Police Chief Brett Farrar vows to "carry on," says: "In the face of adversity is where we triumph." There is a fund for the slain officers' families:

Lakewood Police Benevolent Fund
PO Box 99579
Lakewood, WA 98499

UPDATE 1:10 p.m. ET: Maurice Clemmons is now officially a fugitive suspect:

Troyer said warrants for first-degree murder have been issued against Clemmons in the killings of the officers from the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood who were gunned down in a coffee shop on Sunday morning at the start of their shifts.

That's the end of the "person of interest" language. BTW, Clemmons is believed to have been wounded in the abdomen, and may be dead by now.

PREVIOUSLY (11:52 a.m.): Associated Press:

The suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a coffee shop was not found Monday in the Seattle home where he was thought to have been holed up overnight, likely wounded from his bloody encounter with the officers.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

University of Washington police have alerted students to an unconfirmed report that the suspect in the Lakewood police shootings may have been sighted on or near the campus in Seattle.
Cmdr. Jerome Solomon says someone reported that Maurice Clemmons was seen getting off a bus about 7 a.m. Monday near the university's hospital. He says police are checking the area.

Michelle Malkin continues to update . . .

UPDATE 12:57 p.m. ET: Fox News reports "people who know Clemmons told investigators that he had been shot in the torso." The names of the slain officers have been released:

Those killed were identified as Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Gregory Richards, 42.

Dan Riehl is blogging the story. The Jawa Report and Gateway Pundit are also on the story.

More at Memeorandum. Will continue to update with latest developments.

PREVIOUSLY:

Non sequitur of the year

by Smitty (h/t NewsBusters)

"It was warming, John," Buchanan said. "It's not been warming since '98. Secondly, there's no known proof it's because of man and there's no known proof it's a great danger."

However, [Newsweek's Eleanor] Clift felt inclined to responded, rather emphatically. She said she believes U.S. policy should be proactive toward the issue. Her view is arguably indicative of the mainstream media's sentiment on the debate, and she equated it to blind faith when she told Buchanan there's no proof there's a God either, which didn't mean global warming wasn't a danger.

"It's no known proof there's God, either. How much proof do you need, Pat?" Clift replied. "Oh, it is a danger. It's a danger in many places."

There is also no conclusive proof that Pink Floyd wasn't channeling the Wizard of Oz when they recorded the Dark Side of the Moon. Their weak denials only underscore the shenanigans afoot.

Babaji's Inspirational Wisdom Quotes

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But Can We Make it Stick, Professor Hanson?

by Smitty

Victor Davis Hanson has some great ideas about what needs to be changed. I fall short of confidence on his tax notions, however. Granted, this is a ransom note reply to a brief post of his, but the point I want to get at is this: the Iron Law of Bureaucracy calls for one mother of a smelter.

1. Pay as you go, balanced budget—whatever you wish to call a return to fiscal sanity. Conservatives need to stop talking about tolerable deficits in terms of GDP; and liberals should cease the charade that trillion-plus annual borrowing is great stimulus.
...
2. Freeze federal spending at the present rate, and let increased revenues balance the budget. The idea that we could ever cut outright the budget seems long ago impossible—given the culture of complaint and the melodramatic rants about starvation and murder if another entitlement is not granted. Still, some sort of leadership is required to remind the American people that much of what their government does is not just unnecessary, but counter-productive and they would be better off without it.
...
3. Some sort of fair or flat tax that ends the trillion-dollar industry of tax preparation, avoidance, and fraud. For about a quarter of the population April 15 is a spooky sort of Halloween. Instead, we need a tax system in which one can complete the necessary preparation in about 2 hours. Whose bright idea was it to excuse nearly half the American households from income tax exposure (Clinton and Bush, and now Obama?)—a fact that explains why in Pavlovian fashion recently Senators have been saying that we can add on a new war tax, a health-care surcharge, and a new high rate on “them”? The justification of a 40% income tax, 10% state income tax, 15.3% payroll tax, and new war and health care surcharge taxes can only be that one’s income was undeserved, ill-gotten, and thus better “rectified” by more enlightened federal redistributors.

These may be good, reasonable and attainable suggestions. But for how long? The attention span isn't going to last past the memory of economic hard times. While the US Constitution is a wonderful document, it offers scant hope for continuity beyond the dedication of the people to limited government. This dedication and ~$4.00 will get you some froo-froo at Starbucks, but not for long.

The discussion we need to have is about how we take away the whiskey and the car keys from the teenage boys, to re-work P. J. O'Rourke. As long as we have a Federal Reserve printing money at will, and a Sixteenth Amendment supporting Federal control over our wallets, the structural problems remain.

My suggestion is to strike the 16th Amendment, eliminate Federal peacetime borrowing, and let the Federal government bill the States. There can be an annual steel cage match where politicians fight for control over the formula for deciding percentages--could be a fundraiser.

If the reality of the Federal costs were presented to the States, the voters would be incentivized to elect responsible adults, an admittedly shocking prospect.

Ideas like those of Professor Hanson seem tactical in nature, and not the strategic re-direction required.

The lameness of Adam Lambert

Let's face it, he's boring -- which my latest column at The American Spectator is certainly not:

At some point, reasonable people might expect an end to these épater les bourgeoisie gestures, as the bourgeoisie have long since ceased to be shocked by such routine public exhibitions. . . .
More than four decades have gone by since Philip Larkin poetically joked about sex having been invented in 1963, "Between the end of the Chatterley ban/And the Beatles' first LP." Nevertheless, there stubbornly persists within the self-styled "artistic community" the assumption that middle-class Americans are a bunch of repressed puritanical hypocrites badly in need of the liberating influence that only pelvic thrusts, gay kissing and the choreographed simulation of sadomasochism can provide. . . .

Read the whole thing.

(Cross-posted at Right Wing News.)

Sunday, November 29, 2009

BREAKING: Cops surround Seattle neighborhood; Clemmons cornered? LATEST: 'Bleeding,' says 911 caller MORE: Now SWAT Operation

UPDATE 11:45 a.m. ET: Maurice Clemmons is still at large. I got six hours sleep and woke up to this news on TV.

LATEST NEWS ON SEATTLE MANHUNT HERE

UPDATE 4:55 a.m. ET: More from KIRO at SWAT standoff in Seattle:

Several bangs, followed by sound of breaking glass, then a louder explosion from Leschi standoff scene.

Obviously, the police want to end this before dawn. They've got night-vision equipment; Clemmons doesn't.

UPDATE 4:50 a.m. ET: KIRO reports from scene of SWAT standoff:

After loud bangs, negotiator on loudspeaker: "This is one of the toughest decisions you'll make in your life, but you need to man up."

UPDATE 4:25 a.m. ET: Michelle Malkin:

KIRO TV in Seattle has detail . . . 4:15am Eastern 11/30…hostage negotiator on loudspeaker attempting to communicate with Clemmons . . .

Young folks, pay attention to how hard Malkin works. Best-selling author, Fox News star and yet here she is, awake in the pre-dawn hours, working to provide up-to-date coverage of a breaking news story. And beating me!

Meanwhile, via Seattle police scanner, we learn that a neighbor is heading to the police command post to report the interior layout of the home where Clemmons is reportedly holed up.

UPDATE 4:40 a.m. ET: KIRO reports police are warning people in the neighborhood to expect loud noise from flashbang devices in event SWAT has to assault. As of now, it's a standoff situation.

BTW, my guess is Malkin filed her 4:15 a.m. blog update after getting a call from Fox News telling her they'd want her on "Fox and Friends" this morning to discuss the case.

UPDATE 3:40 a.m. ET: Zack in Seattle:

BREAKING: SPD SWAT has started their tactical operations

Zach reportedly lives near the scene and is listening to a police scanner.

UPDATE 3:20 a.m. ET: The Seattle University student newspaper reports:

The person of interest in the slaying of four Lakewood police officers this morning may now be hiding in a home at East Yesler Way and 32nd Avenue South, about two miles from Seattle University’s campus.
Police responded around 8:45 p.m. [i.e., 11:45 p.m. ET] to the location because a woman told police Maurice Clemmons, the person of interest, was on the property and bleeding, reports The Seattle Times.

Also: Why was this Arkansas convict in Seattle? Apparently because his sister lives there. And there has been a reported "spurt of crime" in the area near the university.

UPDATE 3:32 a.m. ET: Twitter updates from Seattle resident Zach:

SPD issuing an APB for Eddie David, light skin black male 6'3" 170lbs, assassin's accomplice driving white 83 Buick LeSabre . .

Medics are being summoned to the scene of the police standoff . . .

one of those SPD armored assault vehicles just rolled by my place en route to the scene

PREVIOUSLY 2:42 a.m. ET: Just now reported:

Seattle police cordoned off a section of Seattle's Leschi neighborhood late Sunday night, believing they had located the person of interest in the shooting deaths of four Lakewood, Wash. police officers.
Police cruisers surrounded streets in the neighborhood of 32nd Avenue and Yesler Way in the search for Maurice Clemmons. Several law enforcement sources say they believe they have Clemmons pinned down in the neighborhood. . . .

Previously reported here. Michelle Malkin has been all over the story. More at Memeorandum.

UPDATE 2:53 a.m.: Via Seattle's Channel 5 Twitter:

Seattle Police ask people living in blocked-off area to stay inside/keep doors/windows locked

UPDATE 3:10 a.m.: Also via Twitter, Seattle software developer Buzz Bruggeman says police are searching near the home of his friend.

UPDATE: 4 police officers ambushed LATEST: Ark. man sought for questioning

MONDAY 1:20 p.m.: LATEST UPDATES ON THE SEATTLE COP-KILLER MANHUNT

MONDAY 4:05 A.M.: Clemmons now reportedly surrounded in Seattle neighborhood; SWAT operation underway.

PREVIOUSLY (SUNDAY 9:35 p.m.): Seattle Times reports:

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors. . . .
Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. . . .
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.

UPDATE 10:11 p.m.: Michelle Malkin has details on Huckabee's clemency for Clemmons. As I said in the Greenroom, if Clemmons is the killer, this would make Huckabee a Republican Dukakis.

UPDATE 10:30 p.m.: Now a thread at Memeorandum. It appears Confederate Yankee was the first blogger on the Huckabee angle. Don Surber also comments. Thanks to Tacoma Mama for alerting me to the fund for the slain officers' families:

Lakewood Police Benevolent Fund
PO Box 99579
Lakewood, WA 98499

UPDATE 10:40 p.m.: Linked by Paco Enterprises and It's Only Words. Thanks.

UPDATE 10:50 p.m.: Gabriel Malor has more at AOSHQ. And we're linked by Dave C. at Point of a Gun. Thanks.

UPDATE 2:35 a.m. Monday: Excuse the delay in updates, as I had a deadline for the The American Spectator on another topic.

The Underground Conservative calls this "Huckabee's Willie Horton moment." In an update, Michelle Malkin makes reference to the bizarre case of Seattle cop-killer Christopher Monfort. He killed a cop and torched four police cars and was described by police as a "lone domestic terrorist." Monfort was apparently into child pornography and was a general weirdo with strange political beliefs:

Monfort didn't appear to have friends, a romantic interest or close ties to his family, [former supervisor Roxy] Hill said . . .
"You couldn't connect him to any human beings, not even his parents," Hill said. . . .
Monfort would get worked up at times about political issues, decrying things such as warrantless wiretaps under President George W. Bush, [former employer Lloyd] Lezcano said. . . .
He also displayed his political views at the juvenile center, Hill said.
When she walked by classrooms, Hill said, Monfort would always be talking about inequities in the criminal-justice system.
"He was turning it into a black and white" issue, Hill said.

That was evidently Monfort's motive for his (alleged) cop-killing terrorism. Police say a note Monfort left at the scene connected the attack to a case in which two sheriff's deputies were videotaped beating a 15-year-old arrested for car theft.

There is no reason to believe that Sunday's killing was in any way related to Monfort's attack. Maybe the Pacific Northwest has become a magnet for violent cop-hating weirdos or something.

PREVIOUSLY (8:52 p.m.): KOMO-TV in Tacoma:

Four uniformed police officers were shot and killed in a bloody Sunday morning attack at a Lakewood-area coffee shop, officials said. . . .
Troyer said investigators have learned that the gunman stood in line the Forza Coffee Co. outlet at 11401 Steele St. South as if he were there to buy some coffee. When he reached the counter, the barista saw him pull a gun our of his coat. She fled, thinking the gunman was about to target her. Instead, he turned and fired point-blank at the four uniformed officers as they were working on their laptop computers, then fled the scene. . . .
One officer was shot as he attempted to struggle with the gunman. Another officer fired off some shots toward the gunman as he fled, and may have hit him, Troyer said.
"We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight . . . that he fought the guy all the way out the door," Troyer said. "We hope the suspect was shot, because that would tell us who it is. There aren't a whole lot of people running around with gunshot wounds."

I've posted video in the Hot Air Greenroom. Also more at the American Spectator.

I'm a lot like Tiger Woods

Spectacularly talented guy with a sexy wife is forced to make an embarrassing confession:

I'm human and I'm not perfect.

I can totally relate. Except that I don't have a mansion in Florida or a Cadillac Escalade and, unlike Tiger's golf game, spectacular talent in blogging hasn't made me rich. Yet.

Hit the tip jar.

How to blog Kate Beckinsale . . .

. . . if you must!

She has a lovely smile, don't you agree? Why, then, does the Classic Liberal feel the need to show Kate Beckinsale nearly naked? True, it is Rule 5 Sunday, but must Classic Liberal really give us Kate Beckinsale bikini pictures? Kate Beckinsale underwear photos?

Such a gratuitous display is unnecessary. Kate has a beautiful smile. Why should she wear anything else?

We await Dave Neiwert's reaction

More right-wing anti-government terrorism?

PARKLAND, Wash. - A gunman walked into a coffee shop and shot and killed four police officers Sunday morning in what sheriff's officials described as a targeted "execution." . . .
The officers were obviously targeted because they were in full uniform, their marked patrol cars were parked outside and no one else was shot at . . .

Read more. And in case you don't know who Dave Neiwert is.

UPDATE: Breaking news, as edited by Dave Neiwert:

Here's the most recent suspect description: ~~black~~Republican man, mid-20s to mid-30s, 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 10, medium build, scruffy and wearing a ~~black~~Fox News jacket over a ~~gray hooded~~Glenn Beck sweatshirt and blue jeans.

All points bulletin for this dangerous Tea Party extremist!

UPDATE II: The slain officers were from the Lakewood Police Department:

This morning a complete coward and threat upon all of society took the lives of four of my Guild members and your sworn protectors in a cold blooded assassination. As I write this I am numb. We were dealt a nasty blow, good men and women I have had the honor of knowing for years are senselessly gone. There is no way to comprehend it, to validate it, or to make sense of any of it. You cannot understand evil like this, as a community we must form a solid bond against criminals and hold them accountable. I know my members and can say with certainty that as a group we will remain professional and will continue to work to protect those of you we have taken an oath to protect. If you know a cop tell them how much you appreciate them, it truly keeps us going.
Please pray for these officers and their families. All of them had significant others and children who are left behind. As a Guild we will do anything we can. If you want to donate to the families our Guild has a benevolent account. Every penny will go to the families; if you want to donate to a specific officer you can write his or her name in the memo section. If the check is made out to LPIG Benevolent Fund at PO Box 99579 Lakewood, WA 98499. I will personally make sure it goes where it is intended. May God bless you four who are in a place so much better than this; you are some of the finest professionals I have ever known. God bless our community today.
Brian D. Wurts, President
Lakewood Police Independent Guild

The manhunt for the killer continues. $10,000 reward. The gunman may be wounded.

Let us indeed rally behind religious expression and freedom of speech

by Smitty

As Ace notes, the Swiss have banned construction of new minarets.

Stand by for the cacophonic outcry.

The ban should have been worded differently. For example:
"All mosque construction is on hold until after completion of the first house of worship of any non-Muslim stripe in Mecca."

The asymmetries in religious tolerance around the world take on the stench of global warming.

Update: Brussels Journal

There is a backlash on the way: at present it is showing itself in small ways, over minor matters such as minarets, but presently it will manifest itself on more substantial issues such as immigration and bogus climate change. It is no coincidence that the people most loudly bemoaning the ban on minarets in Switzerland are those who most vociferously applauded the prohibition on crucifixes in Italian classrooms. The consistent principle is an attack on European Christian civilisation, complemented by subservience to all the enemies of that civilisation, secular or Islamic.

'Trust us -- we're scientists!'

As our teachers used to say in math class, "show your work":

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.
It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.
The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Information legislation.

(Via Memeorandum.) My Catholic friend Pete at Da Tech Guy knows how to push my Protestant buttons:

Q: What do the "Global Warming" people have in common with some forms of Protestantism?
A: Apparently they also are making the argument that the salvation of Global Warming should be a question of faith and not works.

Right, Pete. While we await your Ph.D. dissertation on the physics of transubstantiation -- zing! -- let's agree that there have always been religious overtones to environmentalism. One reason that abortion is such a sacred right to some Baby Boomers is that they were deceived by the "Population Bomb" hoax of the 1960s and '70s, when neo-Malthusians warned that the alternative to draconian population control was a Soylent Green-style dystopia.

For decades, elitists have sneered at those of us who are skeptical toward the claims of what I describe as the Temple Cult of Scientism:

The High Priests perform their statistical rituals and the cultists genuflect reverently before their idol, Science.

The federally-mandated triumph of secularism in public education -- Engel v. Vitale, Abington School District, Epperson v. Arkansas -- has steadily enlarged the credulous congregation of the Temple Cult.

These landmark Supreme Court decisions stigmatized religion as unconstitutionally subversive of the educational process, ensuring that future generations of American youth would be inculcated with a sort of neo-Manichean worldview, wherein traditional religious belief had nothing relevant to say about science, history, psychology or any other realm of human inquiry.

Ideas Have Consequences, as Richard Weaver famously observed, and this legally-certified declaration that there was no overlap between Faith and Reason has not merely marginalized Faith, it has also undermined Reason. When we behold the religious fanaticism of the Temple Cult in regard to Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), we must understand this irrational fruit as a natural product of the poisoned tree of Scientism.

Philip E. Johnson's Reason in the Balance demonstrated how Darwinism -- one of the bedrock tenets of Scientism -- inevitably perverts not only science but also education, law and many other intellectual endeavors. It is but one step from this sort of Scientism to the revolutionary terror of Jacobinism, for when men jettison the anchor of Faith, the selfish conceit of Reason makes them dangerous fools, as Edmund Burke explained:

A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper, and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who will not look backward to their ancestors. . . .
We know that we have made no discoveries, and we think that no discoveries are to be made, in morality; nor many in the great principles of government; nor in the ideas of liberty, which were understood long before we were born, altogether as they will be after the grave has heaped its mould upon our presumption, and the silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity.

This temptation to think that we are morally superior to our ancestors, you see, is the road to hell that Scientism paves. You need not be a Bible-thumping fundamentalist (like me) to notice how the adherents of Darwin tend to smuggle into their arguments a predisposition toward Whig history, wherein humankind is relentlessly struggling upward on the road of Progress. Here it is best to recall the brilliant aphorism of G.K. Chesterton:

"My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday."

Exactly. If everything is Progress and Progress is everything, then decline becomes an ontological impossibility and -- by logical extension -- today's Congress is morally superior to the Founders who gathered at Philadelphia in 1776 and 1787.

Anyone who doesn't understand how such a worldview undermines the Rule of Law and puts our rights at the mercy of legislators and bureaucrats has forfeited any claim to intellectual superiority that would qualify them to lecture the rest of us about Science.

Christopher Hitchens is both intelligent and an atheist, but intelligent men who suppose themselves smarter than God are ultimately defeated by their own syllogisms. Man dies and God endures, and if man's conceptions of the eternal and infinite -- the Alpha and Omega -- are sufficiently flawed as to be vulnerable to literary criticism or scientific dispute, then this is merely because, as the Apostle Paul said, "now we see through a glass, darkly."

There are no accidents, you see, and those who seek God earnestly and diligently will not forever be frustrated in the search. In checking my citation just now, I was directed to I Corinthians 13, which rather famously addresses the relationship between faith and works:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

Read the whole thing, as they say. Truly there are no accidents, and by his seeming joke about Protestantism, my Catholic friend Pete has directed me by the roundabout route toward the passage that justifies a Protestant creed: Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia.

We end, then, with Paul's meditation on love and charity. Considering the season -- especially Mrs. Other McCain's decision to be a one-woman stimulus program on Black Friday -- I am tempted to declare myself a fit object of charity.

However, I am merely a greedy capitalist blogger, and this is a fee-for-service operation, so if you wish to show appreciation for my services in vindicating Faith and Reason, $5 or $10 in the tip jar might do the trick. If your prefer even more shameless capitalism, we'll count this as the latest installment of our second annual Holiday Book Sale. And don't forget: What to Give Your Wife for Christmas.

Rule 5 Sunday

by Smitty

Rule 5 Sunday, statuesque model edition. Let's go.

Daphne had some excellent nature shots and concludes with a bit of Rule 5.
Adrienne's Catholic Corner has a roundup of blokes for the ladies.
Smash Mouth Politics featured Alizee Jacotey. He was also first to grace the Reader with Eve, whose high heels seem a tad bit...redundant. But that recalled a video that some colleague showed me about the sun, featuring Yulia Stepanova. The music is rather heavy. Muting recommended.

Dustbury also mentioned Eve, with some interesting statistical analysis. Then he played the Donny Osmond card. Then he features a purple high-heel with a blond strapped to it.
The Pegu blog has a clip that of someone demonstrating bar equipment that "allows you to benefit from her vast...experience."
Yankee Phil engages in Courtney Cox admiration. Also he had a news report of wives sending cheerful pictures to deployed husbands.
Big Hollywood contributed to Rule 5's longstanding interest in women with artillery.
Anorak featured Ashley Greene, who is in "Twilight". Like the economy, "Twilight" is about sucking, I guess.
Instapundit reveals why his is a low-crime neighborhood.
Track-a-'Crat featured a dish with a dish for Thanksgiving.
Three Beers Later had Adrienne Barbeau. However, the clip of Denise Milani torturing a bikini is cause for a New York trial, in my legal opinion. He also has Mitzi Gaynor.
Monique Stewart, the HotMES, featured a hot chick for Thanksgiving.
House of Eratosthenes has a link to "Women with Books". Time for some literacy, ye knuckledraggers. Back over in his Alphabet of Pulchritude project, Pamela Hensley met Raquel Welch and, tragically, didn't last long.
Fischersville Mike reports that Lance Smith is leaving CMT. The evidence of extreme pressure is all over the pictures.
The Classic Liberal uses Kate Beckinsale to hold the attention while explaining the war on the poor. Cognitive dissonance at its finest.
American Blogger mentions some dude with a cat name who might be doing something really stupid.
Bombs and Dollars is the find of the week. Their Military Babe of the Day (MBD) feature is exactly what we're talking about.
Proof Positive features Liv Tyler.
Nation of Cowards calls Eve "Babezilla".
Paco Enterprises features Lina Romay.
Political ByLine had the first shot of "Teh Other Woman". Also, a turkey in a bedroom, for reasons that escape me.
Makes My Brain Itch featured Brad and Angelina.
The Daley Gator has really gone into Rule 5 this week.
Support Your Local Gunfighter features Victoria Beckham.
Berman Post has some Rule 5 Reebok commercials.
American Glob features Angie Harmon.

Check back, as I need to go now, and Bob Belvedere has a major round of links.

Update: Thank you for your indulgence.

The Indentured Servant Girl featured Jane Russell.
Mulieris Dignitatem had another ladies Rule 5 installment, and then found a picture of Hannah Giles' father with game.

Belvedere went slightly crazy on us. I blame Eve.
Things were going fine through the week:

Then Saturday, the storm:

Amazon Eve
Hooters girl seeking more wings
Rachel Uchitel google bomb denial
Christina Hendricks Rule 5 overdrive admission
Paula Creamer golf relief
Jackie Guerrido, global hotness source
Lina Romay, inspired by the inspirational Paco
Susan Hayward, in the normal mode

Update II:

HotMES features Marisa Miller

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Some topics are best left to Ace of Spades

For example, the suicide of 52-year-old Mike "Christine" Penner, two years after the L.A. Times sportswriter wrote a column with these immortal words:

During my 23 years with The Times' sports department, I have held a wide variety of roles and titles. . . . Today I leave for a few weeks' vacation, and when I return, I will come back in yet another incarnation. As Christine. . . . I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words.

Many years to "work up the courage" -- and two years later, he/she kills him/herself. Over to you, Ace.

Giftie Giftie Gifts Lists

"Giftie Giftie" at http://www.giftiegiftie.com/ is an Online Gift List Organiser.

Instead of guessing what friends and family want for the birthdays, weddings, and Christmas, we can share "wish lists" online and see what they really want. It's private by invite only, and best of all, its free.

The sign up process is the usual thing: Supply an email address, User ID, and Password, and from there the main steps are as follows.

When we type in and add an item, Giftie uses Amazon to find weblinks to the item for our invited friends and family to be able to buy it for us online if they want to.

For example, I entered in a Boss Chorus Pedal for guitar onto my list:

and when I clicked the "Add this Gift" button, Amazon.com set up web links to various types of Boss Chorus pedals: (if I click the actual "boss chorus pedal" link, I can see about twenty different items).

(I don't have a Chorus pedal because the Native Instruments emulator on my PC has Chorus, and my Marshall Guitar amp also has inbuilt chorus, but a Boss pedal would be nice to have as well).

Amongst the items we add onto our list, we can flag certain items as "Most Wanted". A Chevrolet Corvette is my most wanted item..... because we can dream to the max on Giftie !

The second step after creating a wish list is Create or Join a Group if we are planning to have our whole family put up Christmas Wish Lists together:

The third step is to view other people's lists and to "reserve" an item on their list if you are planning to buy it for them. Once an item is reserved, its gift tag turns red so that other people know that the item is already taken care of by somebody else. But the recipient does not know that the item has been reserved.

The nice thing here is that we can reserve an item without being required to purchase it online through any of the links that Giftie has provided. So the service is really free with no strings attached.

Giftie also provides some interesting stats on what the most popular gifts on its lists are:

In these stats, we can pick a category and then "drill down" to what interests us.

For example we can find out what are the most popular video games for the Nintendo Wii :

So for this Christmas, why not give "Giftie Giftie" a go: it's free, and it's fun.

And it just goes to show there is a free web application for nearly everything !

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Tits 7"

Swedish
Released 1983
#79 on the Pang roster.

Band:
Ronny Gutå (Vocals)
Kenny Högberg (Guitar)
Janne Lagebro (Drums)

during the years 1979-1984 Swedish label PAnG records was the equivalent of copping some grade a pharmaceutial dilaudid.pang was run by a certain Lars E. Carlsson and + their label carried some of the best dope around.
from Punk to powerpop to metal a virutal plethora of Good times awaits.Usually only pressing a few hundred to 500 they earned cult status with a spew of metal releases now regarded as classix by swedish metalheads.with releases like EXCITERS , PUBLIKFÖRAKT ,
TEAMWORK ,and the abominial TiTs,,,,,,,,,heres a great punk tit!!!!!!!!

Tracklist:

1) Folk
2) Kallt

Tits - Mediafire

**OR**

Tits - Megaupload

Head vampire says: 'Leave the fangs alone.'

by Smitty (h/t HillBuzz)

Bernanke, and the rest of the bloodsuckers, need to go.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said curbing the central bank’s authority to supervise the banking system and tampering with its independence would "seriously impair" economic stability in the U.S.

Because $12 Trillion in debt doesn't, you know, count.

A number of the legislative proposals being circulated would significantly reduce the capacity of the Federal Reserve to perform its core functions," the Fed chairman said in a commentary released yesterday on the Web site of the Washington Post. The measures "would seriously impair the prospects for economic and financial stability in the U.S.."

And Heaven favor Ron Paul's economic efforts. Do read End the Fed, by the way.

Bernanke has presided over the most expansive use of Fed powers since the Great Depression. While the 55-year-old Fed chairman has said he averted a financial meltdown, lawmakers have voiced concern about taxpayer-sponsored bailouts and proposed the most sweeping dismantlement of Fed authority since the creation of the institution in 1913.

There are no good reasons that an honest broker fears an audit. If you're the Climate Research Unit or the Federal Reserve, there may be some other motives. One cannot fathom, in a purportedly free society, why we've allowed the Federal Reserve to live as long as it has, given the ruinous policies correlated with its existence.

Or is the value the Federal Reserve adds akin to BHO's "jobs created or saved" nonsense?

How we allow an organization such as the Federal Reserve to exist under our Constitution remains a mystery. If we allow Bernanke's billet to exist un-elected, then why do we bother with the rest of the rituals for Congress and the Executive? No. The Federal Reserve Act was the kind of major change to the fabric of the country that should not have been brought in as mere legislation. Like Social Security, if we want this sort of vampire, we should have a Constitutional Amendment to bare the neck.

Daphne Unmoved by Sarah

by Smitty

Daphne, at Jaded Haven takes some shots at Sarah Palin. As this blog has critiqued Rick Moran on the topic of the lady, it would seem unsporting not to offer similar treatment for Daphne, who is far more entertaining.

I won't be reading her book, she didn't write it and I could not care less about last year's campaign trail. She's a private citizen now, smartly cashing in on circumstance. I wish her well in her commercial endeavors, may she reap the beast of public consumption and grow fabulously rich.

Fair enough.

God help us if her populist drivel ever takes hold, the republic has already been raped to shreds by enough simplistic, pluralist pro-democracy political hacks baying "people power" to the ignorant masses.

Is this a specific swipe at Barack Obama? Are you saying Reagan was populist drivel? Who would you prefer, and how would this person address the real issues of $12 trillion in debt and a vampiric Federal Reserve?

This country's smart modern day conservatives imagine that the perpetual promised land of America's founders is based on a few simple premises; a place where were we are free to achieve, innovate, excel, cash in, choose and create a life without interference from the state. The people who believe in these tenets have no need of populist politicians, yet they continuously embrace their alarmist calls as a last measure, furthering the state into more regulation of man's freedom.

Have you watched the National Debt Road Trip? Have you looked at the vampiric growth of entitlements? It's neither clear that your libertarian state exists, nor that a potential Sarah Palin platform would do, other than (possibly) drive things in that libertarian direction. She could also turn out to be John Sydney McCain in a skirt. It's all unknown. Between the lines of her FaceBook musings, she seems willing to concede the Constitutional ground to the Federal government on health care reform.

Populism is the antithesis of conservatism, it's more socialist happy juice for the underclass, a jizz of simplistic dogma that appeals to ignorant voters, a simple knock down, two step of soft moves for the people, by the people. You'll never have independence when you indicate a willingness to bow to the will of a self-serving, tax-less people. The masses will annihilate your every avenue of success out of sheer, ruthless perversity. They'll vote for your demise out of blind spite. The founders knew this core truth of human nature.

Are you a John Batchelor fan, Daphne? Interestingly, I come from pure white trash roots, yet have managed to score some academic credentials (woo hoo). My observation is that the difference between the populist bumpkins so cheerfully derided by the elitists, and the city slicker elites themselves is the average word lengths used in conversation. People are people are people. If we're going to go down this class stratification road, then let's just punt on the popular vote and let the apparently smarter people just sell us down the river.

The Progressive propellerheads are the authors of the current situation. The nominally conservative, elitist jackasses (everyone since Teddy Roosevelt with the exception of Reagan) have been enablers. The bulk of the GOP hopefuls in play for 2012 have been enablers. John Sydney McCain is an enabler. The difference between BHO and a hypothetical JSM administration, AFAICT, would be the rate of the decline. BHO's Chicago propensity to 'cash in for the homies', if anything, is a feature, hastening the eruption of the crap volcano.

So what I need to see from Sarah, or any other leader worth paying heed, is a commitment to a foundation for diminishing the Imperial Fed. Otherwise, she's just fannying about.

The conservative brands do it as well as the liberal ones, it's all about feeding the state. Our girl Palin is busy shoveling heaping dumb bucketfuls of bromides to that ancient beast of polity. I happened upon a ridiculous post today equating her in fond terms with Thomas Paine. I was appalled at how many ignorant people were lapping this shit up. Are you fucking kidding me? Paine and Palin? That's a partnership that would cause most true conservatives to grab some rope if they didn't immediately succumb to congestive heart failure.

In addition to making a buck, it's quite apparent that Sarah is building up the war chest, and connecting with people in the lower 48. As Dan Riehl notes, she may be making a move in a solid policy direction as early as next year. At that point, like BHO in office, she's likely to start dividing people. Unfortunately, you don't seem aware that "that ancient beast of polity" is really the Federal Government. Also known sometimes as 'Cthulu'.

I would be a happy woman if I saw more people going rouge, questioning the people and parties in power, taking a large step back from the personal and giving the direction of our country a clear hard, dispassionate look. Yeah, that would be good.

You seem to have a tacit assertion here that people have not followed your prescription and arrived at Sarah. Is this some mathematical impossibility?

I, for one, take a similar independent thinking tack. But the ballot requires names. Someone has to be on there. It's quite possible that Sarah will outline a platform that is more GOP RINO swill, should she ever get as far as running in a primary.

Short of seeing the platform, though, your criticisms seem as nebulous as those of Rick Moran. Are you for another candidate, or simply not enchanted with the lady? I'm still in the optimistic corner, myself.

Incompetent dopehead pipe-bomber as dangerous as al-Qaeda, lefty implies

Pathetic Loser No. 1:

Police said no charges have been filed against Mark Campano, 56. Police found 30 completed pipe bombs in his apartment along with components to make more, plus 17 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Campano is in an Akron hospital with injuries received when one of the bombs exploded. . . .
Campano is a former anesthesiologist who lost his medical license in 2005 because of an addiction to the drug clonidine, according to state records. He had similar problems with the drug as far back as 1994 when he was cited by the West Virginia Board of Medicine.

And here's what a former neighbor said about him:

Barbara Vachon lived next door to Campano at the Center Park Place Apartments for several years and said he was a big reason she moved.
"He was always trying to get me and another neighbor to listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos," said Vachon. "I would never watch them. He was some kind of radical, and he didn't believe in the government."
"There was a steady stream of creepy visitors going in and out of his apartment," she said.

Well, yeah, the government took away his medical license and busted him for drugs, so an "anti-government" attitude might be expected. Criminals in general are "anti-government." But now meet Pathetic Loser No. 2:

Of course, if this had been a Muslim extremist caught with such an arsenal, we'd be getting talk-show panels on Hannity featuring Michelle Malkin ranting at length about the threat of Islamic jihad, blah blah blah. Not to mention chatty discussion on Fox and Friends and Morning Joe.
But instead, because he's just a white anti-government extremist, hey, let's just give it a big shrug.

Note the apples-and-oranges comparison involved here. A Muslim extremist might be connected to al-Qaeda -- you know, 9/11, embassy bombings, "death to infidels," that kind of thing -- whereas this dopehead loser guy would be connected to . . . ?

Michelle Malkin! Sean Hannity! Fox News!

UPDATE: One of the things that annoys me about this lefty's presentation of the dopehead pipebomber as an "anti-government extremist" is how it is typical of the way liberals argue. Given the liberal predominance in academia and media, liberals become accustomed to debating everything on their own terms.

The only issues that matter are the issues that matter to liberals. And when it comes to discussing those issues, they only wish to discuss certain facts, which can have only one meaning. As much as they love to whine (when losing) that no one recognizez the ambiguity and nuance of the issues, it is liberals who are always oversimplifying things.

Go back to the Matthew Shepard murder, which liberals insisted was a simple story of homophobia, of society's hateful intolerance, of the evils of Christian conservatives, and the need for hate-crime protection for gays.

Alas, the facts didn't fit this narrative. Matthew Shepard was not killed by "society," or by Christian conservatives, he was killed by a couple of two-bit hoodlums. Both of Shepard's killers had records of petty crime (one for dope possession, one for burglary) and neither had any connection to any religious or political organizations at all.

Yet to hear the Matthew Shepard story as told by liberals, you might have thought Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were hard-core Republican operatives, personally trained as assassins by Jerry Falwell and sent to Wyoming by James Dobson with orders to kill a gay man.

But anyone who tried to point out this discrepancy between the reality of Shepard's murder and the symbolic mythology of "The Martydom of St. Matthew the Gay," was accused of de facto homophobia. In other words, to contest the liberal narrative -- the just-so story of saintly victimhood -- was to invite accusations of complicity in murder. The facts of the case (the identity of the criminals and the nature of their crime) were subsumed by the political template.

So here is this dopehead pipebomber in Ohio -- a genuine menace to society, no doubt -- yet liberals insist the most important facts to liberals are not, inter alia, his evident incompetence or his long history of drug addiction. No, they say, the only thing that matters is that he liked tto "listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos."

What kind of videos and tapes were these? Heritage Foundation seminars? Alex Jones 9/11 Truth videos? Triumph of the Will? We don't know. There are all manner of things that might be characterized as "anti-government," from libertarianism to anarchism to conspiracy theories. Exactly what Campano's political views were, we don't know and frankly, at this point, it's irrelevant. He wasn't arrested for his ideology, but for making illegal explosives.

Yet here comes the liberal temper tantrum, that this "anti-government extremist" is not getting the same sort of media coverage that he would receive if his name was Abdul and he were inviting his neighbors to watch jihad videos. OK, that's arguably true -- but what's the point?

The point is simply that liberals are desperate to find a symbolic villain who can be used to illustrate the danger of "anti-government sentiment" -- hello, Clay County, Kentucky! -- to serve as an indictment of Glenn Beck, the Tea Party movement and conservatism in general. And thus the bizarre attempt to make the Ohio dopehead pipebomber analogous to al Qaeda, as if the logical alternative to the Bush administration's War On Terror should be an Obama administration War On Right-Wing Extremists.

We could laugh at this, were it not for the reality that such loopy ideas can have disastrous consequences. In the late 1990s, the Clinton administration awared a $1 million Department of Justice grant to Mark Pitcavage to create a program to do "anti-terrorism" training for state and local police. Pitcavage's expertise? You guessed it: Right-wing extremism. So while al Qaeda was plotting the 9/11 attacks, the DOJ was training law enforcement to keep their eyes peeled for militia crackpots.

Now think about the amount of law enforcement manpower devoted to investigating the alleged "anti-government sentiment" in Kentucky that turned out to be suicide. And then compare that to the Army's seeming indifference to the warning signs of the Fort Hood killer.

Ask some of the survivors at Fort Hood if they think we're paying too much attention to Islamic extremism.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Saturday, November 28, 2009

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